When you're beautiful in the eyes of a fashion designer, you're just a bulimia-promoting wannabe junkie to Madrid city officials.
Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders. Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.
The ban on extra-svelte models may be spreading to another Mediterranean country:
The mayor of Milan, Italy, Letizia Moratti, told an Italian newspaper this week she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.
In Spain, the health nannies will have all the models checked by weight cops dressed up as medics.
The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI — based on weight and height — to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.
Fascinating. We live in a world where you can lose a high-paying job on a catwalk if you're considered too thin, and where you can be prevented from having a baby if you're judged too fat.
For how Argentinian laws punish fashion retailers who don't stock clothing sizes big enough, see here.
More on the fatally flawed Body Mass Index here.
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